


safiya

by elizajane



Series: and behold, it was so very good [19]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Drabbles, F/F, Not Beta Read, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21927700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizajane/pseuds/elizajane
Summary: Sky meets someone who just might be her favorite person.
Relationships: Safiya/Sky (Good Omens)
Series: and behold, it was so very good [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1411705
Comments: 114
Kudos: 97
Collections: Twelvetide Drabbles 2019





	1. maamoul

**Author's Note:**

> This story will be written as a series of 14 drabbles of 100 words each for the Twelvetide Drabble Challenge 2019. One chapter will be posted per day between December 23, 2019 - January 6, 2020.

"Want one?" Safiya asks, turning as Sky arrives at her usual seat toward the back of the lecture hall. “We’re celebrating Eid! And the end of exams.” She gently shakes the brown paper bag.

“Oh -- I -- yes? Thanks?” Sky blushes at her inability to form words with Safiya so near. She takes a date cookie, then blushes again to think of Safiya’s beautiful hands shaping them.

"So. Question." Safiya leans closer as Sky sits down. "You work at that weird little bookshop in SoHo, right?”

“Um,” Sky agrees.

“Think they’d be open to hosting a queer, religious studies book group?”


	2. kew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: chestnuts.

Beneath the ancient chestnut tree at Kew, Sky closes her eyes and tries to imagine Safiya at the bookshop. _Her_ bookshop. Safiya with her beautiful headscarves, clever hands always moving as she speaks, her captivating mouth never at a loss for words. Safiya opens her mouth and asks questions Sky wishes she were brave enough to ask; every time she raises her hand with that toss of her head Sky falls a little more hopelessly in love. _Do I want to be her or to kiss her?_ Oh, most definitely both. Not that she can imagine ever making it so.


	3. welcome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Note: Reference to Sky's mother being anti-trans.
> 
> Prompt: eggs.

Sky peels her hard-boiled egg and tries not to fret.

“Az,” she says, finally, worry tumbling out.

He looks up from the shipping manifest he’s reconciling. “Yes?”

“You know some of the people coming tonight are trans and nonbinary, right?”

Az tips his head. “You said.”

“Just don’t …” She knows he won’t, she knows he won’t ... but her mother would. And her mother’s voice is very loud in her head just now.

“My dear,” Az says, in that magical tone that stops her anxiety spiral mid-rotation. “I will do everything in my power to make your friends feel welcome here.”


	4. dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: cloves.

“Miraculously, the Tube has delivered me early,” Safiya leans over the counter. “Could I spirit you away for coffee?” 

"Um," Sky says, looking around. "I --"

"Just in time for dinner,” Az appears beside her. “Good to see you again, Safiya, my dear. Do ensure our Sky takes her time, would you? It’s a shame to hurry a delicious meal in good company.” 

At Su Lin's, Sky studies the board. She can afford the day's soup and October's special drink: a dark roast with cinnamon and cloves.

"Let me," Safiya says when Sky takes out her wallet. "I did the asking."


	5. samhain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: rosewater.

Sky always dreads her birthday, which falls on Samhain. To her mother, the Wiccan, this makes it a Big Deal ... but not in a way that ever means cake. Or presents. Nothing to show Leah cares about her daughter at all.

Which is why Sky is crying over the ugly cake Crowley has made, and the signed copy of  _ Widdershins  _ Az has given her. And, now, here is Safiya thrusting a small pink box into her hands. "The rosewater perfume you like," she says. "And this scarf I saw in Piccadilly and simply had to buy for you. Happy Birthday!"


	6. visiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: thyme.
> 
> Content Note: Another brief mention of Sky's anti-trans mother.

Sky texts outside Safiya’s flat, then quietly panics. 

“Hi!” She says, too loud, when Safiya appears. She  _ will not  _ think how softly inviting Safiya looks, in her dinosaur slippers and worn bathrobe. “You’re sick so -- I brought, I made -- this is some syrup. It should help. With the cough.” She pulls the jar from her satchel. 

“It’s lemon, honey, and thyme. Leah used to make it when we had colds.” Will Safiya think that’s weird? “I didn’t get it from her. I wouldn’t --”  _ let my TERF-y mother anywhere near you.  _

“You  _ made  _ it for me,” Safiya says, smiling. “Thank you.” 


	7. quiz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: barley.

"I can not drink, if it bothers you," Safiya says, lifting her glass. The single malt winks amber in the light from inside the pub where students are gathered for quiz night.

Sky shakes her head, shoulders hunched. "No, no. It's not -- not that. I trust you." She pauses, glancing back at the lights and noise. She'd said yes because she'd known Safiya would be here. And now this. "I've just … been around people who don't know when to stop, is all. Crowds like this bring up … unpleasant memories."

Safiya knocks back her whiskey. "Shall we go for a walk?"


	8. jane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: pomegranates.

Sky peels the pomegranate skin, exposing ruby seeds. 

"The question of Jane," she murmurs.

"Mmm?" Safiya looks up from her book.

"It's just," Sky says. "Jane Morris. The model for Rossetti's  _ Persephone _ . That one at the Tate: blue robe, all that hair, holding a pomegranate? I wonder whether she liked being Rossetti's model. She was an artist, too, but we remember her as 'that woman Rossetti painted.' I hope she enjoyed it, you know?" She shakes her head. "I suppose it's silly."

Safiya leans forward and selects a bright red seed to press between Sky's lips. "Not silly at all."


	9. invitation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: nutmeg.

Sky hesitates, hand on the latch. "Come in?" 

It isn't much: University housing, a kitchen shared with five others, a single room not much bigger than Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs. Still, she's lived in worse. She raises her chin.

"I'd love to," Safiya accepts, stepping through.

Sky scrambles to think what she can offer: Slightly stale biscuits and milk warmed on the hob, with honey and vanilla -- oh, and fresh-grated nutmeg -- will have to suffice. She feels Safiya's gaze, heavy, as she works.

"You have a gift," Safiya says, accepting the steaming cup. "For making people feel welcomed."


	10. waking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: oranges.

Sky wakes up to a sense of unfamiliar space and has a brief moment of panic before recalling the night before: Lebanese takeaway, Netflix, curling into Safiya's warmth on the sagging futon in the proper, adult flat Safiya shares with two mates. What had seemed, to Sky, a mutual reluctance to end the evening until Safiya had said: _Stay_.

In Safiya's bed they had curled together in sleep, a riotous hope unfurling in Sky's chest.

She rolls over as the bedroom door opens. Safiya backs in with a laden tray: orange juice, coffee, pastries. "Thought you'd like breakfast in bed?"


	11. sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: cinnamon.

Sky's mobile vibrates.

Cin: _Leah says you won't be at the Solstice gathering?_

Sky sighs. Not that Cinnamon will push her to be at Leah's thing. But she'll want Sky to have alternate plans. Staying late at work, hoping she'll be brave enough to ask Safiya over, won't count as _plans_ to Sky's extroverted sister.

Sky: _Yeah. Working late. Class the next day._

Cin: _For real or for Leah?_

Sky: _Both. Wasn't gonna go anyway._

Cin: _Oh :-)? What's his name?_

_Sky: Her._

She covers her faces for a moment then tries again.

Sky: _At least. I hope so. Safiya._

Cin: _!!!!!_


	12. mead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: honey.

It’s a rash purchase, on her budget, but Sky wants something special for the solstice and the label beguiles her: A woman with a tumble of rich brown curls like Safiya’s, her breast heavy in the palm of a second woman whom she is kissing, everything about the curves of her body warm and yielding. Sky puts the honey mead on the counter, trying not to blush, and the girl rings her up without a glance. 

That night she considers the bottle on her desk and, with a racing pulse, texts Safiya:  _ Would you spend the winter solstice with me? _


	13. yes

Safiya knocks on the window, waving, just as Sky is closing up.

"Come in?" Sky opens the door. "I won't be a minute." She steps aside to let Safiya through, conscious of stopping herself from swaying into Safiya as if she belonged there.

"Would you like one?" Safiya asks, holding out a paper bag. "Marzipan cookies. I bought them at the Christmas market up the street." 

Sky takes a cookie, then realizes Safiya is very close. So close it feels like wishful thinking. She looks up.

"Yes?" Safiya asks, softly, leaning in.

"Yes," Sky says, closing the breach. "Yes,  _ please _ ."


	14. better than chocolate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: chocolate.

Many hours later, in the darkness of a new morning, Sky rises and pads on bare feet to the toilet.

When she returns to bed, Safiya pulls Sky down into their nest of pillows and bedclothes. Sky shivers anew the miracle of Safiya's hands and lips on her skin.

"Never put clothes on again," Safiya whispers, smiling, against Sky's mouth.

"Only if I can stay in your bed for always," Sky whispers in return. 

"Tempting offer," Safiya spreads a hand at the small of Sky's back and draws her flush. _This_ , Sky feels, _this_ is where she's meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I skipped over their first together-orgasms because they deserve more than a drabble for those. I promise them soon, in a separate fic. Thank you to everyone for your companionship during the journey. <3


End file.
